Identity
Being established in 1981 The European Law Students' Association – ELSA is today the world's largest independent, non-political and non-profit making law students' association comprising membership of in total 30,000 members.
ELSA members are supposed to be open-minded, internationally oriented/targeted and multilingual and may more easily acquire a broader cultural understanding than other law students. The association's aim is to give direct experiences with foreign legal systems and business practices.
ELSA's 200 university-based local groups and 42 national groups as well as the international board are entirely student-managed and administered. Similar to a small franchise, each group creates its own plan of operation in line with the overall goals of the association. Each group recruits and trains its volunteer executives and markets ELSA's programmes to the academic and business community. In combination with the university curriculum, ELSA prepares its members for their future entry into professional life, especially when working in an international environment.
Vision:
"A just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity".
Purpose:
"To contribute to legal education, to foster mutual understanding and to promote social responsibility of law students and young lawyers".
Means:
- Providing opportunities for law students and young lawyers to learn about other cultures and legal systems in a spirit of critical dialogue and scientific co-operation.
- Assisting law students and young lawyers to be internationally minded and professionally skilled.
- Encouraging law students and young lawyers to act for the good of society.
During the second half of the 1990s, the organisation developed significant activities in the field of human rights and international justice, thus contributing to the progressive development of international law and the protection of human dignity. Projects such as the ELSA Law School on Peace in Bosnia Herzegovina (University of Sarajevo, 1995), the Arusha School on International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Tanzania, 1995, 1996 and 1998) and the Salzburg Law School on International Criminal Law (University of Salzburg, 1999) attested the impact that ELSA was having in promoting the Rule of Law in the international legal order. At the Rome Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court of the UN (FAO, Rome, 1998), ELSA participated with the largest delegation (over 80 law students and young lawyers) sent by any organisation accredited to that conference (see the Final Act of the Rome Diplomatic Conference).
Read more about this topic: European Law Students' Association
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